5 comments:

Gregg
said...

Part of the Rising of '98. They have monuments in Ireland commemorating this. Sadly, for the French and the Irish, it didn't work out quite as well as the French supported revolt in the North American colonies.

This was at the beginning of the Napoleonic period - the French army was no joke. However, apparently the small French contingent (just 1,000 men) didn't arrive until two months after the main part of the rebellion had been crushed. They joined with local rebels to win one battle, but were crushed by superior numbers once they attracted the attention of the main British forces.

Incidentally, many of the leaders and members of the Rising of '98 were Protestants, united together with the Catholics. The "Scots-Irish", that is Scots Protestants who'd been encouraged to emigrate to Ireland, soon became extremely displeased with the way the English lorded it over them as well as the native Irish. By 1776, enough of them had emigrated again that they were becoming dominant on the frontier in the South - and they wouldn't follow British orders to stay off the Indians' land, resulting in Indian wars where the redcoats were sometimes taking the Indians' side, and yet another reason for the colonies to revolt... Following the Rising of '98, there was a whole new surge of immigrants from Ireland.